This invention relates to communications networks. More particularly, this invention relates to multimedia communications networks able to effectuate conferences between two or more parties in multiple media, such as voice, video, and data.
The essential characteristics of face-to-face meetings can be simulated by multimedia conferencing systems. Such conferencing systems permit separated conference participants to communicate with one another in multiple media such as voice, video, and data from their own work places without requiring that they actually convene in the same place.
In one prior approach, these conferencing systems involve a plurality of complicated and expensive computer workstations connected together by transmission facilities which act merely as a transport mechanism for whatever is to be communicated between the workstations. There are significant problems with such a distributed architecture which are preventing this approach from becoming a widespread commercially viable reality. Each of the workstations in these prior distributed environments contains a large amount of the multimedia data processing capabilities, including the necessary bridging and synchronization circuits, used to effectuate a conference between meeting participants. This increases the cost to each potential multimedia user which usually places multimedia communications beyond that user""s interest or financial means. In addition, prior localized desktop applications make it difficult to achieve long-term flexible multimedia conferencing environments conveniently because at least one of the workstations must stay up at all times during the required life of the conference environment. There is no way convenient for all the conferees to leave the conference and then easily return. and pick up the conference where it left off. It also is difficult to synchronize the various parts of a multimedia conference for proper presentation to the meeting participants in a distributed environment. In this situation, it is difficult to create multimedia connections between disparate communications equipment, for example, two computers running different operating systems.
In addition to the distributed architectures described above, there are some centralized architectures involving media bridges located in the network rather than in local workstations. For example, the ATandT long distance network contains some audio and video bridging capability such as the bridging involved in the ATandT Alliance teleconferencing service and the ATandT Global Business Video Conferencing Services. Although these services are useful telecommunication services, Applicants have identified significant areas which might be improved. Applicants have appreciated that it is difficult to achieve flexible, long term multimedia conferences between a variable number of users having different media capabilities. Synchronous modes of communications, such as telephone calls, and asynchronous modes of communications, such as electronic mail, are not easily merged in the prior multimedia communications systems. The prior multimedia communications systems also make it difficult to integrate disparate communications equipment possessed by various conferees into an effective multimedia conference. It is difficult for conferees having different levels of multimedia communications capabilities to enter and leave a given multimedia conference freely. There is no convenient way to effectuate multimedia communications between many potential users such as those who might be connected together by way of a complicated network, such as an extensive local area network or a wide area network such as a public telephone network. For example, there is no way for a telecommunications carrier to provide a multimedia communications service to a wide range of its telephone customers using the present multimedia conferencing systems.
The problems mentioned above are solved by a multimedia communications network which provides a shared multimedia work environment accessible from one or more multimedia ports. In specific terms, the multimedia communications network comprises at least one meeting room server located in the network and connected to a plurality of ports which provide users with access to the network. The meeting room server creates a special electronic circuit configuration in the network in response to a command from a user terminal connected to one of the multimedia ports. The electronic circuit configuration has predetermined characteristics created by the users of the network and has a preselected lifetime in the network in accordance with the desires of those who use the electronic circuit configuration to effectuate electronic multimedia conferences. The electronic circuit configuration may be a data structure which represents a controllably persistent virtual meeting room in the network. Conferences may be held using this meeting room involving any number of participants. Those conference participants may be able to communicate with the others in a variety of media. They need not each have the same ability to communicate in all media. The participants may come and go with respect to conferences held in the virtual meeting room. Even when all participants leave a conference, the virtual meeting room will persist in the network and may be used at a later time to resume or continue the, conference by the same participants or others. The virtual meeting room may be used to initiate or continue other conferences by the same participants or others. The virtual meeting room is thus an electronic analog of a physical meeting place where conferences are held.